Have you ever left a movie feeling scammed?

Kong: Skull Island is an action,
adventure, monster movie and reboot
of the King Kong franchise
in which a group of explorers are
stranded on a never before explored
island called Skull Island, host to
a 100 foot tall ape known as Kong
and a variety of strange and dangerous
creatures.

The film is set in 1973; you know
this because the title sequence is
set to a collage of recognizable
era-relevant footage. Then the retro
soundtrack kicks in and for the
rest of the movie there is a constant
stream of visual references so that
you don’t forget.

Government agent Bill Randa
hires a team of specialists including
a former British Special Air Service
captain named James Conrad, a
helicopter squadron called the Sky
Devils led by Lieutenant Colonel
Preston Packard, and photojournalist
Mason Weaver to explore and
map out the previously uncharted
Skull Island.

The island is surrounded by dangerous
weather conditions, so the
team must navigate a deadly electrical
storm in helicopters, an event
which, like all events in the movie,
is built up for way too long, is
visually interesting but only briefly,
then comes to an anti-climactic
conclusion.

The helicopters encounter Kong
who destroys a number of helicopters
and stranding two groups on
land who fight to survive and combat
their strange and dangerous surroundings.

The survivors are the main cast,
the people you’ve been properly
introduced to, while the many helicopter
occupants who you watch
tragically die are never introduced,
leaving you to wonder things like,
“Wait, who are these people dying?
How many helicopters actually are
there? How did all these people survive?”

The pacing of this movie is intolerable;
it feels like everything is
drawn out for as long as possible to
fill time and the feeling of suspense
practically never ends and by the
time it does, it is so anti-climactic
that it is more frustrating than relieving.
Every event that transpires
in the movie serves a blatant purpose
in setting up the next event at
the most shallow passable level to
drive the generic plot.

There is no depth to any of the
characters. They are basic archetypes
with just enough background
to set up the simple motivations that
drive the plot and as a result there
isn’t enough substance to get you
invested, and no room for significant
character development. Everything
is made to be as painfully easy
to comprehend as possible.

The cast of this movie is great, but
massively hindered by cheesy dialogue,
boring characters and goofy
post-production choices. John C.
Reilly, as Hank Marlow, is an interesting
and bold casting choice,
known for his unique, quirky, oddball,
comedic style in Tim and Eric
Awesome Show and Step Brothers.
His appearance raises hopes for a
bit of comedic focus.

It’s hard to tell what tone the
movie is going for. There are many
instances of out of place, dumb
jokes that clash with the air of serious
realism and in some cases, it’s
impossible to tell whether a scene
is supposed to be interpreted as humour
or tragedy. A lot of humour
falls flat in confusion.

The cinematography in this movie
is designed to make everything
look and feel as dramatic and epic
as possible, and it does so with indulgence
and tastelessness that culminates
in cheesiness.

The special effects in Kong: Skull
Island are well done yet still somehow
underwhelming. There are
scenes where helicopters are pulled
from the sky by Kong that are
filmed from the perspective of the
helicopter occupants struggling to
hold on, losing all sense of direction
while they are spun around by the
giant gorilla before facing death.
It’s visually awesome and could
be seen as a stunning achievement
except that it feels excessive, being
drawn out and repeated until you’re
no longer impressed. There is an
unnatural quality to the way the
spinning effect is animated, perhaps
so that you can tolerate to look at it,
but it still hurts your eyes.

The design of all the creatures in
this movie is excellent, however the
general quality of the CGI is somewhat
lacking with lot of movement
feel slightly slow motion or else
simply unnatural.

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Interrobang

The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd in London, Ontario and distributed throughout the Fanshawe College community.